Nate Silver: The Benefits And Limits Of Political Numbers Crunching

Political forecaster Nate Silver discusses why some predictions work and others don't.

Credit Robert Gauldin

Nate Silver is the statistician and New York Times polling whiz known for his accurate forecasts of the 2008 presidential election. Four years ago Silver called the correct outcome in 49 out of 50 states and picked the winner in every senate race. But he got his start in baseball, using statistics to project how well players would perform over the season. Marcie Sillman spoke with Silver about this year’s election and the benefits and limits of data-driven analysis.